ARMY OF ADDICTS COSTS CITY 400M EACH YEAR

About 400 million worth of goods are stolen every year in Glasgow to buy
supplies for the city's 10,000 hard-drug users.

The cost of the city's ever-increasing drug problem was tallied yesterday
by the Greater Glasgow Drug Action Team.

The figure is based on the average 300-a-week spent by every addict to feed
a heroin habit. To pay for their drugs they have to steal goods worth up to
five times the street value, or deal in drugs themselves.

In an attempt to break the cycle of drug use and crime that traps users,
the team has called on businesses to help recovering addicts by giving them
jobs through the Government's welfare to work scheme.

The report follows revelations in The Scotsman that as many as 120 addicts
could die of an overdose this year, if the recent upward trend in
drug-related deaths continues.

At the publication of a consultation document which sets out ways of
reducing drugs use and minimising the harm caused by drugs, the team has
set a target of 50 training and work places in Greater Glasgow during
1998-99.

The chairman of Greater Glasgow Health Board, Chris Spry, the chief
executive of the team, said that drug misuse was one of the greatest health
and social problems facing the city.

Drug workers had to work with local people and companies to offer
"meaningful alternatives" to a life on drugs, he said, adding: "We need, as
part of the welfare to work scheme, the commitment of local businesses to
get ex-addicts stabilised and give them a second chance."

The three-year strategy, 'Getting to Grips with Drugs in Greater Glasgow',
showed that the problem of injecting drugs use, greater in Glasgow than in
any other European city, was linked to poor housing, high unemployment and
poor social amenities.

It states: "Of most immediate concern are the estimated 7,000-10,000 drug
injectors and poly-drug users in the area who include some of the most
damaged, and damaging, members of our community.

"Drug injectors spend an average of 300 a week on drugs, with most of the
money being raised from stealing and dealing. The annual cost to the area
is more than 400 million. Add to that the huge cost to the police, courts
and prison service, the health and social work service, and the size of the
burden... becomes clearer."

The action team, which aims to tackle drug problems until 2001, recommends
a raft of measures, including more drug education for 8- to 12-year-olds in
schools, prosecutors studying "constructive" options to jail, more needle
and syringe exchanges, and wider use of the heroin substitiute, methadone.

The team, set up as a recommendation of the Ministerial Task Force on Drugs
in Scotland, comprises senior members of Greater Glasgow Health Board,
Strathclyde police, Glasgow City Council social work, education and housing
departments, the Scottish Prison Service and volunteers.

Anti-drug groups welcomed the strategy. Mothers Against Drugs, which was
formed after Allan Harper, 13, of Cranhill, Glasgow, died in January of a
heroin overdose, said that it would begin to address many of the problems.

The group's chairman, Sandra Gilchrist, said: "Addiction to drugs is an
illness and should be treated. Users are part of the community... and they
should be given the opportunity to get into rehabilitation.

"Part of the problem is boredom, lack of work and lack of opportunity.
So anything which encourages people into work is a good thing."